Walking with the Unicorn Social Organization and Material Culture in Ancient South Asia

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer Felicitation Volume

Edited by Dennys Frenez, Gregg M. Jamison, Randall W. Law, Massimo Vidale and Richard H. Meadow

Archaeopress Archaeology Archaeopress Publishing Ltd Summertown Pavilion 18-24 Middle Way Summertown Oxford OX2 7LG www.archaeopress.com

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Front cover: SEM microphotograph of Indus unicorn seal H95-2491 from (photograph by J. Mark Kenoyer © Harappa Archaeological Research Project). Back cover, background: Pot from the Cemetery H Culture levels of Harappa with a hoard of beads and decorative objects (photograph by Toshihiko Kakima © Prof. Hideo Kondo and NHK promotions). Back cover, box: Jonathan Mark Kenoyer excavating a unicorn seal found at Harappa (© Harappa Archaeological Research Project).

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Serie Orientale Roma, 15 This volume was published with the financial assistance of a grant from the Progetto MIUR 'Studi e ricerche sulle culture dell’Asia e dell’Africa: tradizione e continuità, rivitalizzazione e divulgazione'

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. Printed in England by The Holywell Press, Oxford This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com Contents

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer and ISMEO – Occasions in Continuum...... v Adriano V. Rossi Jonathan Mark Kenoyer – The Tale of Sikander and the Unicorn...... ix Dennys Frenez, Gregg Jamison, Randall Law, Massimo Vidale and Richard H. Meadow Jonathan Mark Kenoyer – Bibliography...... xi Fish Exploitation during the Harappan Period at Bagasra in Gujarat, . An Ichthyoarchaeological Approach...... 1 Abhayan G. S., P. P. Joglekar, P. Ajithprasad, K. Krishnan, K. K. Bhan and S. V. Rajesh The Sincerest Form of Flattery? Terracotta Seals as Evidence of Imitation and Agency in Middle Asia...... 19 Marta Ameri Reflections on Fantastic Beasts of the Harappan World. A View from the West ...... 26 Joan Aruz Fish Symbolism and Fish Remains in Ancient South Asia...... 33 William R. Belcher Some Important Aspects of Technology and Craft Production in the Indus Civilization with Specific Reference to Gujarat...... 48 Kuldeep K. Bhan Chert Mines and Chert Miners. The Material Culture and Social Organization of the Indus Chipped Stone Workers, Artisans and Traders in the Indus Valley (Sindh, )...... 68 Paolo Biagi, Elisabetta Starnini and Ryszard Michniak Ceramic Analysis and the Indus Civilization. A Review...... 90 Alessandro Ceccarelli and Cameron A. Petrie Family Matters in Harappan Gujarat...... 104 Brad Chase Revisiting the Ornament Styles of the Indus Figurines: Evidence from Harappa, Pakistan...... 120 Sharri R. Clark The Harappan ‘Veneer’ and the Forging of Urban Identity...... 150 Mary A. Davis Private Person or Public Persona? Use and Significance of Standard Indus Seals as Markers of Formal Socio-Economic Identities...... 166 Dennys Frenez Lithic Blade Implements and their Role in the Harappan Cultural Development in Gujarat....194 Charusmita Gadekar and P. Ajithprasad Who Were the ‘Massacre Victims’ at Mohenjo-daro? A Craniometric Investigation...... 210 Brian E. Hemphill Indus Copper and Bronze: Traditional Perspectives and New Interpretations...... 251 Brett C. Hoffman A Short Note on Strontium Isotope Analysis of Human Skeletal Remains from the Site of Sarai Khola...... 265 Asma Ibrahim The Organization of Indus Unicorn Seal Production. A Multi-faceted Investigation of Technology, Skill, and Style...... 272 Gregg M. Jamison

i The Size of Indus Seals and its Significance...... 292 Ayumu Konasukawa and Manabu Koiso The Art and Technology of Reserving a Slip. A Complex Side of Indus Ceramic Tradition...... 318 K. Krishnan and Sneh Pravinkumar Patel The Art of the Harappan Microbead – Revisited...... 327 Randall W. Law The North Gujarat Archaeological Project – NoGAP. A Multi-Proxy and Multi-Scale Study of Long- Term Socio-Ecological Dynamics...... 343 Marco Madella, P. Ajithprasad, Carla Lancelotti, J. J. García-Granero, F. C. Conesa, C. Gadekar and S. V. Rajesh Toponyms, Directions and Tribal Names in the ...... 359 Iravatham Mahadevan and M. V. Bhaskar Ganweriwala – A New Perspective...... 377 Farzand Masih Personal Reflections on some Contributions of Jonathan Mark Kenoyer to the Archaeology of Northwestern South Asia...... 384 Richard H. Meadow Invisible Value or Tactile Value? Steatite in the Faience Complexes of the Indus Valley Tradition...... 389 Heather M.-L. Miller and Jonathan Mark Kenoyer What Makes a Pot Harappan?...... 395 Heidi J. Miller Dilmun-Meluhhan Relations Revisited in Light of Observations on Early Dilmun Seal Production during the City IIa-c Period (c. 2050-1800 BC)...... 406 Eric Olijdam and Hélène David-Cuny Unicorn Bull and Victory Parade ...... 433 Asko Parpola Analytical Study of Harappan Copper Artifacts from Gujarat with Special Reference to Bagasra...... 443 Ambika Patel and P. Ajithprasad Looking beneath the Veneer. Thoughts about Environmental and Cultural Diversity in the Indus Civilization...... 453 Cameron A. Petrie, Danika Parikh, Adam S. Green and Jennifer Bates Decorated Carnelian Beads from the Indus Civilization Site of (Great Rann of Kachchha, Gujarat)...... 475 V. N. Prabhakar Artifact Reuse and Mixed Archaeological Contexts at Chatrikhera, Rajasthan...... 486 Teresa P. Raczek, Namita S. Sugandhi, Prabodh Shirvalkar and Lalit Pandey Pre-Prabhas Assemblage in Gujarat. An Assessment based on the Material Culture from Somnath, Datrana and Janan...... 495 Rajesh S. V., Charusmita Gadekar, P. Ajithprasad, G. S. Abhayan, K. Krishnan and Marco Madella The Indus Script and Economics. A Role for Indus Seals and Tablets in Rationing and Administration of Labor...... 518 Rajesh P. N. Rao Beads of Possible Indus Origin with Sumerian Royal Inscriptions...... 526 Julian E. Reade and Jonathan Taylor The Role of Archaeology in National Identity: Muslim Archaeology in Pakistan...... 530 Shakirullah The Smallest Scale of Stone. Pebbles as a Diminutive Form of Nature...... 536 Monica L. Smith Five Thousand Years of Shell Exploitation at Bandar Jissah, Sultanate of Oman...... 547 Christopher P. Thornton, Charlotte M. Cable, David Bosch and Leslie Bosch

ii Indus Stone Beads in the Ghaggar Plain with a Focus on the Evidence from and ...... 568 Akinori Uesugi, Manmohan Kumar and Vivek Dangi Locard’s Exchange Principle and the Bead-Making Industries of the 3rd Millennium BC...... 592 Massimo Vidale, Giuseppe Guida, Gianfranco Priori and Anna Siviero Inscription Carving Technology of Early Historic South Asia. Results of Experimental Archaeology and Assessment of Minor Rock Edicts in Karnataka...... 605 Heather Walder The Volumetric System of Harappa...... 623 Bryan K. Wells An Harappan History of US Researchers in Pakistan. In Celebration of Jonathan Mark Kenoyer...... 628 Rita P. Wright Editors ...... 636 Authors Contacts...... 637

iii

The Smallest Scale of Stone. Pebbles as a Diminutive Form of Nature

Monica L. Smith

Of all the potential raw materials available in nature, stone is the most durable and has been used for both practical and symbolic constructions throughout the world. Much archaeological theorizing on stone has focused on portable objects such as tools, ornamental objects such as beads, and shaped architectural elements such as blocks. Unmodified stones such as pebbles also provide the opportunity to evaluate individual engagements with stone, in which pebble-carrying and pebble-deposition provide opportunities for all members of society to participate in monumental actions through the incremental addition of tangible devotional and construction elements. This paper examines pebbles as a measure of individual participation in archaeologically detectable religious and social rituals at the ancient city of Sisupalgarh in India where thousands of quartzite pebbles were transported and embedded into the plaster floors of the site’s central ritual structure.

Keywords: Stone, monuments, India, urbanism, ritual.

Craft production is a process in which humans modified through glyptic techniques, in which the transform natural materials into artifacts that bear craftmaker chips away at the raw material to yield the marks of modification and subsequent use. Over a finished product. Once stone is broken, it is nearly the past two million years, our ancestors have engaged impossible to render whole again, and archaeologists with a wide variety of ‘found’ materials including have examined the psychological and social impacts bone, antler, ivory, fur, feathers, leather, sinew, shells, of deliberate fragmentation on stone artifacts (e.g. stone, wood, leaves, clay, and ochre. Many of these Burström 2013; Carter 2007; Chapman 2000) as a way materials are quite versatile, allowing craftsmakers of understanding the cause-and-effect relationship and consumers to engage in a dynamic realm of between people and their effect upon the natural world. differential value in the process of embellishment and Stones also were used in their wholly natural form, with use. Shells, both freshwater and marine, served as the cobble manuports subsequently used as hammerstones, raw material for some of the very first beadmaking by grinding stones (e.g. manos and metates), and cooking hunter-gatherers (Stiner 2014), and later became used stones (see Thoms 2009). in complex societies for bangle-making as an index of social status and trade (Kenoyer 1983). Bone is a durable Ancient people worked with pebble-sized stones in yet malleable material that served for ornamental use a variety of ways: as components of wooden plows as well as for tools, while clay was similarly used for the (Brady 1988), for polishing clay prior to firing (Valado fashioning of art objects, devotional items, and pottery 2008), as mulch for gardens in arid environments vessels (Orton and Hughes 2013). (Lightfoot and Eddy 1995), for spreading asphaltum on the interior of water-carrying baskets (Braje et al. 2005), Of all of the natural materials with which humans have as slingstones (Skov 2013), tallying stones (Lagercrantz engaged, stone is the most durable. The natural world’s 1970), game pieces (see Rollefson 1992), and fishing longest-lasting known material, stone continues to be weights (e.g., Casasola 2010). Used en masse, pebbles the preferred medium for creations meant to surpass provided architectural elaboration, as seen for example the human lifetime such as sculpture, monumental in pavements in Mesopotamian buildings (e.g. Matney architecture, political and ritual proclamations, and and Donkin 2006) and mortuary contexts (e.g. Alden and gravestones. Its perceived durability even extends to Balcer 1978), and pavements in buildings and mortuary its use as the medium for long-term warning symbols contexts in Greece (e.g. Catling 1987-88: 7, 13, 18, 28). In for nuclear waste (Kaplan and Adams 1986). In addition fluid mixtures such as plaster and cement, small stones to its inherent properties that make it suitable for or other durable materials known as ‘aggregate’ provide the creation of many artifact types such as tools, its bulk and strength (Chen and Liu 2004; Moropoulou et al. widespread availability makes it an ideal material for 2005). Pebbles however appear to have been collected, both practical and symbolic use. transported and curated in the archaeological record far beyond their range of practical uses, providing the The archaeological analysis of stone focuses on both opportunity to consider how this smallest scale of stone worked and unworked exemplars. Stone is most often functioned in both the social and symbolic realms.

536 Monica L. Smith: The Smallest Scale of Stone

The cultural value of stone sophisticated, bifacial stone tools include handaxes that appear in the archaeological record c. 1.7 million Ancient peoples used stone at a variety of scales. years ago (Kuman 2014). Selective stone transportation Large-sized stones included natural shelters such as is seen throughout subsequent eras, such as the caves, overhangs and sinkholes. Large stones were movement of ‘chocolate flint’ in Late Glacial Europe also moved to make megalithic architecture, a global from 10-14,000 years ago (Sulgostowska 2002) and phenomenon associated with both nomadic and starting from the earliest occupation of the New World settled populations of Africa, Japan, Europe, the Indian when stone was moved hundreds of kilometers across subcontinent, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas. North America (Amick 1996; Ellis 2011) and South Structures made of large stone elements would have America (Flegenheimer et al. 2003). Throughout the required significant strength and engineering skill. development of social complexity and well into the The cooperation required to transport the Stonehenge present, people have traded distinctive stones: obsidian monoliths, for example, suggests that large groups of in Mesoamerica and the Aegean (Freund 2013); lapis people came together to move and place the uprights lazuli, carnelian and steatite from Central Asia to the as demonstrated through archaeological experiments Near East and the Arabian Gulf (Potts 1993); and semi- that address both the technical and social components precious stones from the to the of monument construction (e.g. Pavel 1992). Roman Mediterranean (Casson 1989).

Despite the obvious challenges of displacement in a Ethnographic accounts indicate the perception of pre-mechanical era, stone was the medium of choice a range of practical and spiritual qualities inherent for many ritual monuments. Although some structures in stone, especially in societies that did not have an were made of wood, cloth, reeds, or even bones, ancient indigenous use of metals (Brumm et al. 2006). These people would have recognized the permanence implied qualities would have been seen and appreciated in even in a stone structure compared to organic construction. the smallest stone elements, through which there could Wooden structures such as homes, fieldhouses, be an individualized relationship to the natural world. ramadas and workshops were subject to weathering, Stone artifacts such as projectile points, grinding fire, and insect damage that would have required stones, querns, and drills were explicitly designed to regular replacement and maintenance of the wooden be used by one person. Small chipped stones worked elements, but stone was a medium that changed little, into elaborate ‘eccentric’ pieces would not have been if at all, within a human lifespan. suitable for practical tasks such as cutting or scraping in the same way as the blades and other tools that As Dean (2010: 5) has noted for the Andean world, the makers would have fashioned from the same raw stone was an immutable substance that served as material. The manufacture of stone items not only ‘life immobilized’. In the alluvial plains of southern expressed individual symbolic qualities, but also Mesopotamia, stone had magical powers, was placed enabled the transmission of social information which in foundation deposits, and served as a metaphor provided the opportunity for collective engagement, as for rulers’ ability to link distant mountains to local well as one-to-one instruction through apprenticeship realms (Postgate 1997). And in contexts as varied as (e.g. Milne 2005). the British Neolithic and contemporary Madagascar, stone is ‘an everlasting material with which one honors Two avenues of theory enable us to further address the and commemorates the dead’ (Parker Pearson et al. use of small-sized stone objects: miniaturization theory 2012: 9-10). Structures made of stone were meant to and collection theory. be permanent records of events and emotions, made variable by the nature of the material itself. Stone Miniaturization in natural objects retained its original characteristic even when it was displaced from its original locale: rough or smooth, Portable stone, whether naturally formed or culturally porous or impermeable, dull or shiny (Tilley 2004; see modified, can be evaluated through the concept of also Scarre 2004). The range of physical textures is miniaturization. Miniatures encompass cognitive accompanied by distinct visual and even aural qualities categories such as representation in which the full (Tilley 2004; see also Boivin 2004) and constituted value of the sign is present in even the smallest phenomenological distinctions that would have been exemplar (Stewart 1984). The archaeological record evident to ancient peoples. provides ample evidence of the manufacture of small versions of utilitarian objects, variously interpreted Paralleling the use of stone in large-size form was by archaeologists as ‘practice’ objects, votives, the practice of moving smaller-sized stones for use commemoratives, models or toys. Doug Bailey (2014) as tools. The earliest stone tools date to c. 2.6 million suggests that these traditional views of small-scale years ago in East and South Africa and slightly later exemplars should be productively expanded given in Asia, associated primarily with early Homo; more that miniaturization has other powerful psychological

537 Walking with the Unicorn – Jonathan Mark Kenoyer Felicitation Volume effects including the ability for enhanced well-being matters of faith, attachment, belonging and identity and feelings of control when objects or environments (cf. Smith 2007). are reduced in size. Collection theory and natural objects In addition to their use as representation of larger- scale activities in portable form and as a means of Collecting as a distinct form of human-material fitting objects into small spaces, miniature objects are engagement has been primarily the focus of studies endowed with a distinct aesthetic potential that informs in art history, psychology, and economics. These fields their selection, use and deposition. Small cut stones in have provided the basis for conceptualizing the ways in mosaics, for example, result in a distinct visual effect which collecting is an activity that, although it has been through the pointillist manipulation of thousands of greatly diversified by modern manufacturing, has long tiny fragments. The miniaturization of stone bladelets historical and prehistoric antecedents. Researchers in the microlithic tradition also could be suggested to identify ‘collecting’ as an active process that also perform an aesthetic function, given the relative lack isolates objects from daily use, in which selection is of practicality of direct use of such small flaked items controlled by the actions and preferences of individuals and the necessity of incorporating them into a handle who make autonomous decisions about acquisition of in order to serve as a tool. any particular object, subject to time and budgetary constraints (Belk 2001: 67, 2014: 34; Bianchi 1997; Danet The selection of pebbles as small natural objects and Katriel 1994[1989]). provides a type of miniature whose aesthetic and phenomenological appeal comes from being found Viewed in this way, many archaeologically-recovered rather than made. Pebbles are defined as a distinct masses of objects ranging from mortuary assemblages geological category in a size range from 4 to 64mm and medicine bundles to caches and ritual deposits can (‘sand’ is defined as 0.0625-2mm, ‘granule’ from 2-4mm, be evaluated through the perspective of ‘collecting’ and ‘cobble’ from 64-256mm; Plummer et al. 2005: in which the selection of items is made with explicit 129). These natural objects exhibit a roundedness reference to understandings of what constitutes a and symmetry that are reminiscent of human-made representative, effective and internally-consistent set objects, but are collected and used in their natural of objects. As Danet and Katriel (1994[1989]: 228-9) form. The distinctive qualities of stone that were observe, collections incorporate an element of control perceived in living rock were also materialized in their and domination over some aspect of the material world. smallest fragments, in which pebbles and cobbles were Collecting also is a deliberate activity that provides essentialized with same qualities of durability and a ‘flow’ experience [with] a merging of action and texture. Compared to manufactured items that were awareness incorporated into daily routines and habits shaped through irreversible glyptic processes, cobbles (Danet and Katriel 1994[1989]: 222; see also Bianchi and pebbles came in a form that was ready-to-use and 1997: 279). Even when handling small, inexpensive or did not require additional formations to have either trivial items, individuals exercise agency as they elect practical or symbolic use. to include or exclude particular items from a collection.

The specific size and shape of pebbles can be meaningful Collection theory applied to pebbles that are acquired, to those who handle and use them; Valado (2008: 173) carried and redeposited at selected locales provides an notes that in the ethnographic record, ‘potters have example of the way in which people utilize essentially often been known to curate or scavenge polishing stones ‘free’ natural objects in a discrete and distinctive that they particularly like, sometimes passing them expression of self. Unlike manufactured goods whose down through generations’. Pebbles also have been the acquisition is governed by intermediaries such as focus of embellishment through engraving, a factor artisans and vendors and limited by cultural constructs that enhanced a stone’s distinctiveness, and perhaps of legitimacy in procurement, collecting natural objects also, its perceived power and durability (Brumm et al. is an activity open to all ages, genders, and levels of 2006; Koldehoff and Bukowski 2010). Unlike lithic tools physical ability. The only expenditure required in the and debitage that present sharp edges that are hard to collection of inert natural specimens is the physical hold one’s hand around, the size and shape of pebbles exertion of the collector, who in the case of pebbles provides a gentle tactile engagement. Pebbles can be would encounter such items while undertaking other easily hidden tucked away in the hand, a pocket, or a landscape-related tasks such as fishing, bathing, bag away from the gaze of others until such time as washing clothes, or while crossing water bodies en the individual deems fit. As forms of ‘inconspicuous route to agricultural fields and herding-grounds. consumption’, pebbles and other miniature objects enable agentive acts in both ritual and domestic The literature on collection theory focuses on the role contexts as individuals selectively reveal and conceal of collecting in the formation of individual identity, with the assumption that the prime motive for

538 Monica L. Smith: The Smallest Scale of Stone collecting is to retain control over the objects (e.g. Belk tombs of the British Neolithic and subsequent periods in 2001, 2014; Danet and Katriel 1994[1989]). Most of the which quartz pebbles are prominent, interpreting them analytic literature on collecting focuses on the ways in ‘as part of the portable material culture associated with which individuals amass items for pleasure, a sense of the actions and events enacted at these places’. In the accomplishment and the display of identity. However, Iron Age megalithic tradition of India, ancient builders one could broaden the interpretation of collection as of boulder-lined circles brought different types of soil a form of cognitive investment in material transfer and stone to cover the burials within (Mohanty and for socially-integrative purposes, such as picking up Walimbe 1993: 100–101). In some cases, pebbles appear objects for redeposition at collective locales in which to have been used as a referent to larger outcrops of the act of collecting is meant to serve donative or living rock, as was the case for the passage grave at votive purposes. Such acts of selection-for-donation the Swedish site of Rosdala, where beach pebbles of illustrates the blurred boundaries between private/ Cambrian sandstone were found intermingled with individual and social/collective consumption (cf. Fine offerings of pots and flint axes (Tilley 2004: 210–11). and Leopold 1993: ch. 21). The use of pebbles in devotional context is also seen Small is beautiful. The concept of ‘incremental in more recent religious contexts. Pebbles are cast monuments’ at the devil during the Hajj pilgrimage (Al-Haboubi 2003), and on the East African coast the ethnohistoric The concept of monumentality generally is reserved for and archaeological records indicate the use of washed, the discussion of structures whose individual elements perfumed quartz pebbles strewn on Islamic tombs also are large, such as the monolithic stones that as ‘repeated acts of memorialization’ (Fleisher 2014: comprise Stonehenge, the larger-than-life sculptures 15). These examples illustrate how the use of pebbles of Easter Island, or the many megaliths and dolmens provides a distinctive and democratic potential for throughout Asia. The application of collection theory as widespread public participation in ritual. Only the a process of agentive selection and deposition enables adult and able-bodied could lift large boulders, but any us to address how monumentality also can be achieved young, frail or elderly person could tip a shell into a through the accumulations of objects and items even midden, or place a pebble as an offering. Archaeological when none of the individual parts are ‘monumental’ theory is increasingly focused on telling an inclusive in any way. The results of these processes of deliberate story of the human past, including the perspectives that collection and deposition can be characterized as emanate from distinctive life-states such as childbirth incremental monuments. (e.g. Beausang 2005) and childhood (e.g. Baxter 2005). Archaeologies of the disabled and of the aged are still Recent studies of middens have emphasized the ritual to be fully incorporated into the lexicon of perspectives value of accumulations, particularly in natural objects on ancient activity, although such developments are to deposited at distinct landscape locales (e.g. Claassen be welcomed. 2010; McNiven 2012; Moore and Thompson 2012). These authors show how shell middens were not merely Pebble-carrying at Sisupalgarh trash heaps but also had ideological significance, and often were invested with other symbolic content such The ancient city of Sisupalgarh, located in the Mahanadi as burials. Viewed as ‘persistent places’ (Moore and delta of eastern India, dates to the Initial Urban/ Thompson 2012: 276), middens were participatory Early Historic period (starting mid-1st millennium signals of individual action. In many cases, the BC through the middle of the 1st millennium AD). accumulations that form middens were of natural Among the walled urban settlements of this period objects that had been only slightly modified, such as in the subcontinent, Sisupalgarh is distinct in having shells that had been opened by human hands. Everyone, a rectilinear rampart and monolithic standing pillars. from young to old and vigorous to infirm, could In addition, the site is highly readable because it has, contribute to the creation of a shell midden, signaling a until recently, had little occupation after the Early sense of belonging through abundant discard (cf. Smith Historic period providing an ideal opportunity to 2012). address a complete ancient urban landscape. The site has been the focus of several research efforts, starting The combination of accumulative behavior and the in the mid-20th century (Lal 1949) and renewed in the special regard for stone as a natural substance resulted past decade through a program of systematic surface in the not-infrequent use of pebbles as a specific focus survey and reconnaissance (Smith 2005) followed by of devotional ritual in contexts other than middens, remote sensing, fine-grained topographic mapping, evident at all levels of sociopolitical complexity and in and excavations to examine site-wide activity patterns both monotheistic and polytheistic contexts. Darvill (e.g., Mohanty et al. 2007; Mohanty and Smith 2008; (2002: 80–4) provides an extensive list of barrows and Smith and Mohanty 2016).

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The survey project utilized a systematic, non- Quartzite pebbles in the 1-5cm size range were recovered aligned random sampling process to place collection in 182 (87%) of the collection units (Figure 1). Pebbles units ranging from 1.5 x 1m to 10 x 10m in size for were not proportional to other categories of finds: for the collection of artifacts, production debris, and example, collection unit L10 had 8.65kg of pottery, tile architectural fragments throughout the interior of fragments and brick fragments, but only one quartzite the rampart. Our team crisscrossed every survey unit pebble in the 1cm size range; similarly, unit M11 had in two directions to maximize the collection of even 4.4kg of collected material but only four quartzite the smallest items, and noted the soil texture, surface pebbles in the 1cm size range. By contrast, some units condition, and weather at the time of collection. Most had an extremely high proportion of pebbles compared of the 208 collection units were placed in the plowed to other recovered materials. In the area of the central fields that were at the time the dominant form of land- zone around the monumental pillars, we took note of a use. The majority of the collected items consisted of surprisingly large amount of quartzite pebbles in the ceramics, brick fragments and tile fragments with a 1-4cm size range (e.g., 99 in Unit P20, 120 in Unit Q21, very limited number of other items such as abraded 142 in unit S22) but at the time could not discern their terracotta ornaments, iron fragments and slag. Within function. the collection units, natural items such as unmodified pebbles and stone spalls exhibiting anthropogenic Several years later as part of the excavation project, effects also were consistently collected, counted and we returned to the central portion of the site to weighed. investigate the monumental pillars, whose arresting

Figure 1. Distribution of pebbles found in systematic collection units at the ancient city of Sisupalgarh. The area of monumental pillars is denoted by the letter P.

540 Monica L. Smith: The Smallest Scale of Stone

Figure 2. Pillar mound of Sisupalgarh, view to west. Note human figures for scale.

visual characteristics are matched by an enigmatic that itself had significant ritual investment including a architectural plan (Figure 2). In and around the low third-century BC Ashokan inscription and subsequent mound on which the pillars stood, we opened a total evidence for Buddhist ritual activity. Other unmarked of twenty-two excavation trenches ranging from 1 x sandstone outcrops were distributed throughout the 4m to 5 x 5.5m in size revealing both broken-off and Mahanadi delta. fallen pillars. The trenches confirmed the presence of many more pillars than what was currently visible Pebbles found within the archaeological deposits at above ground. The recovered and extant pillars Sisupalgarh would thus have been deliberately brought revealed a U-shaped configuration reminiscent of the to the site, and deposited with a disproportionate apsidal structure type known as a chaitya hall that was frequency in the central area where the presence of a common element of contemporaneous South Asian monumental stone columns clearly suggests a ritual Buddhist sites (Mohanty and Smith 2008). function. The central mound represents a juxtaposition of both sophisticated planned architecture that Near the bottom of the stone pillars that formed the would have been executed by a selected few, and main architectural elements of the structure was a the contributive activities that could have been 3-8cm layer comprised of quartzite pebbles (Figure undertaken by a much greater variety of individuals. 3). The pebbles were exactly the same type as the This juxtaposition is a familiar one in many religious ones recovered in the surrounding fields during the traditions, in which soaring monumental architecture survey of the monumental mound area. Subsequent forms (mosques, cathedrals, temples) provide the scene sections of additional excavation trenches showed that for repetitive actions. In South Asia even today, ritual these pebbles formed a consistently level ‘floor-like’ activities involve the cumulative effects of numerous configuration, and were recovered by the thousands individual small-scale efforts, such as the placement of in the trenches of the pillar excavations. In the flowers, the pouring of milk, the placement of coins, or investigations of adjacent structures we also recovered the tying of strings to trees as votive offerings. Most of several disarticulated fragments of plaster in the 20- these efforts are organic and transitory, and would not 30cm range with similar pebbles embedded in them leave any trace in the archaeological record. (Figure 4). At the western end of the pillar mound, where agricultural activities had trimmed the mound’s In the central pillar mound at Sisupalgarh, the proxy of edges, we were able to view a floor layer that was still pebbles provides a tangible and long-lasting testament intact as a 8-10cm section of plaster with pebbles. to individual action. They may also have constituted a dual-use strategy in which practical considerations At Sisupalgarh, we cannot be sure that the pebbles were integrated with symbolic ones, as the use of had a ritual use, but they are clearly associated with a pebbles provided stability in the plaster matrix of the ritual place. The pebbles that were noted in the survey floor. Chen and Liu (2004: 589) note that in their tests and as part of the floors at Sisupalgarh were not part of aggregate size, the largest-size aggregate that they of the immediate underlying geological or pedological experimented with (in their case, the largest used was substrate, which consists of a lateritic soil. Instead, they 20mm) provided the best mitigation of fracturing, were most likely to have come from the streams that while de Larrard and Belloc (1997: 424) have noted that laced the Mahanadi delta or from the pebbly bands of rounded aggregate within composites requires less sandstone outcrops (S. D. Mohanty, pers. comm.). The of the binding matrix. Through the use of a rounded nearest such outcrop is at Dhauli hill four km away, a site pebble aggregate, the ancient builders of Sisupalgarh’s

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Figure 3. Layer of pebbles preserved as stratigraphic band under fallen pillar (photograph by R.K. Mohanty).

used as aggregate in the white plaster of the central pillar zone. In sum, regionally-available aggregate in the form of pebbles that could be brought in as part of routine local activities would have been attractive from an economic maximization perspective as well as providing a practical focus for ritual activity along with a distinct, aesthetically pleasing outcome.

Discussion and conclusion

Stone is a scalable medium, enabling human creativity to be expressed through massive blocks as well as through the smallest manuports. Each fragment of Figure 4. Pebbles in disarticulated plaster fragment recovered stone is a partible representation of the parent rock and in pillar-area excavations at Sisupalgarh. exhibits the same material properties. While fragments of stone in the form of chips or flakes indicate human actions through the violence of quarrying, pebbles convey this scalability through a ready-made form. monumental premises would have economized on Although many acts of ritual engagement are intangible plaster, which was made of lime for which the most (such as gesture or prayer), such acts take place in a probable source was marine shells from the coast at a materialized context often marked by the transfer of minimum distance of 45km away (Thakuria 2012). human-made or natural objects from the hands of the devotee towards the object of ritual devotion. More The use of pebbles within the floor plaster was not likely often it is the context of the act that is significant, to have been prompted merely by cost-effectiveness rather than the size of the donative object which can be but also by the symbolism of pebbles as part of the emplaced almost unnoticed by the incremental actions ritual composition. Smoothness was expressed not of those who each carry and deposit a small item. merely in the surface of the floor but incorporated into the very fabric of it through the incorporation Landscape studies acknowledge the ways in which of waterworn pebbles instead of the angular laterite ancient people endowed their surroundings with a gravel that is ubiquitous at the site. The leaching of richness of perception even if there are no visible reddish color from iron oxides also might have resulted markers of anthropogenic investment (e.g. Bradley in reddish stains or an unwanted color shift had it been 2000; Claassen 2010; Taçon 1999; Tilley 2004). Stone

542 Monica L. Smith: The Smallest Scale of Stone is a distinct form of material because it cannot be connectivity and ritual concepts. Perceptions of the created or augmented by human volition: it is a wholly natural would have persisted as societies moved natural product that cannot be imitated, in contrast from migratory to sedentary lifeways and then to the to the organic materials that humans cultivated to densely-populated realms of the city, where natural provide more bountiful and predictable supplies: objects were increasingly mediated by human-made the domestication of animals for wool and hair; the forms of architecture and spirituality. For residents at cultivation of plants such as cotton, flax and agave for Sisupalgarh, the act of collecting pebbles outside of fiber; and the husbanding of silkworms for silk and the settlement, followed by deposition in the central birds for feathers. Pebbles can be found in quantity, portion of the city, was an individual, direct and but only in natural locales, rendering them a distinct materialized engagement with the world outside of medium for agentive expressions of the nature-culture the rampart walls and a participatory opportunity that interface. Individuals could select pebbles from the served to ‘domesticate’ the natural world within the natural environment according to a rubric of personal urban confine. choice in color and shape, and select how and when to transport and redeposit them in a cultural context. The examination of pebbles from Sisupalgarh also provides insights on the practice of field archaeology Like the many other ‘small things forgotten’ in the and the value of recording unusual occurrences in archaeological record (cf. Deetz 1997), pebbles and both survey and excavation, even if their potential other naturally formed objects provide the opportunity interpretation is unknown at the time of data collection. to examine the nexus of collection, deposition, ritual, At Sisupalgarh, the survey in the central portion of the miniaturization and agency. Their acquisition can be site recorded the presence of hundreds of quartzite done by individuals of any age or strength, hidden from pebbles in the collection units; it was not until the view until desired, cast upon collections in public and in excavations at the pillar mound several years later that private, and carry inscrutable messages of hope, desire, it was realized that the pebbles had an architectural belonging, and belief. Pebbles also can ideologically function through incorporation into floor plaster. refer to specific types of landscapes; as Darvill (2002: Recording forms that allow for open-ended comments 84) notes, pebbles evoke a ‘close physical association are key elements of fieldwork and database strategies, with water, their place of origin in the sea or in river- as are stand-alone narrative fieldnotes that enable beds, and in particular wells and springs’ suggestive of investigators to build hypotheses and record seemingly symbolic links to those aquatic locales. Water availability inconclusive phenomena while in the process of data (characterized through seasonal processes of drought collection. and flood as well as human interventions of rice fields, dams, sluices, and canals) played a strong political and Seeing things as ancient people did requires attentive social role in the Early Historic period; the association re-imagination to create architecture, living-context of pebbles with water might have suggested to pebble- assemblages and cultural practices from artifacts and carriers a sense of control over or accommodation with ecofacts that were subsequently subjected to what the otherwise fickle realm of water. often constitutes hundreds or thousands of years of site-formation processes (cf. Schiffer 1987). Sometimes As seen at the ancient city of Sisupalgarh, the recovery these insights are gained when we extract materials of pebbles in cultural locales such as the central pillar from the ground, washing and sorting them to see mound provides insights about the lived relationship them the way that ancient people would have seen between urban dwellers and their rural surroundings. them (see, e.g. Fleisher 2014, fig. 13). Sometimes we Given the lack of production debris found within the observe connections serendipitously, as in the case site, most items utilized at Sisupalgarh seem to have of Sisupalgarh where the presence of a preserved been manufactured elsewhere. People transported section enabled us to see the banding of an otherwise to the city a myriad of items including agricultural disarticulated architectural element in the form products, ceramics, architectural elements such as of a pebble-laden floor. The careful observation of bricks and tiles, metal items, and ornaments. Indirect patterning enables us not only to see what is made and acquisition of items such as food through intermediaries used, but also what is out of place and therefore likely resulted in urban experiences that became further and to have been meaningful, deliberate and noteworthy to further removed from a direct experience of nature (a ancient people. critique of modern cities that may well have resonance in ancient times; cf. Benton-Short and Short 2013). Acknowledgments

Richard Bradley’s research on the ‘archaeology It is a pleasure to offer this paper to Mark Kenoyer on of natural places’ (2000: 18) emphasizes that the the occasion of this festschrift volume, in thanks for his partibility of stone as it is quarried and transported collegial support and timely insights over the years. I renders it a particularly powerful carrier of landscape would like to thank the Archaeological Survey of India

543 Walking with the Unicorn – Jonathan Mark Kenoyer Felicitation Volume for permission to work at Sisupalgarh, and extend my Braje, T. J., Erlandson, J. M. and Timbrook, J. 2005. deep appreciation to Rabindra Kumar Mohanty for An asphaltum coiled basket impression, tarring co-directing the excavations from 2005-09 when we pebbles, and Middle Holocene water bottles from hosted many colleagues, students, and local villagers San Miguel Island, California. Journal of California and who participated in the fieldwork. Research was Great Basin Anthropology 25(2): 207–213. supported by the National Science Foundation (BCS Brumm, A., Boivin, N. and Fullagar, R. 2006. Signs of life: 9903399, 0550035); the National Geographic Society; Engraved stone artefacts from neolithic South India. the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16(2): 165–190. Research; the American Institute of Indian Studies/ Burström, M. 2013. 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